"Tokelo (Rights & Duties)" Drawing

Bowale Bruce is a South African-born artist from Pretoria. During school Bowale explored various creative pursuits, such as dance, music, drama, gumboots dance and visual arts. His first public outing as an artist was in the form of a mural painted at Pretoria National Zoo (2016). He went on to obtain his National Diploma in Fine Arts from the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in 2018. During his studies at TUT, Bowale also found time to participate in the Pretoria Art Museum Educational Assistance (EA) development program to become an art tour guide and an art facilitator.

In 2018 Bowale was amongst the top five short-listed candidates for the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) scholarship and participated in his first group exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum. He featured in the top 40 and top 100 of the States of The Art (SOTA) and Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards competition respectively. In 2019 he was selected for the Artist Career Boot Camp (ACBC) and was mentored by Lesley Cohn from Art Source South Africa. This program was funded by the National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC) in association with the Bag Factory Artists ’Studios.

In the year of 2020 Bruce Bowale exhibited with the Association for Visual Arts (AVA) Gallery at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (ICTAF). He went on to reside in Cape Town and during his stay he partook at the Zeitz Mocca group exhibition “Home is where the Art is”. He then had a Duo exhibition titled “Legae/Khayalethu” with a Cape Town based artist Chumisa Fihla at the (AVA) Gallery 2020- 2021.

On his return of arrival (early 2021) Bruce Bowale became the Resident Artist of the Kopanong Art Studio at the Pretoria Art Museum until mid 2022. In 2023 He creates Mural Painting at TUT Science Campus, Organised by the United Nations South Africa, Wildlife & Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa), Khutuza Foundation and TUT Science faculty. In 2024 he debuts his Solo Exhibition titled “Resonance Of My Body” with the Pretoria Art Museum.

In 2025 Bowale receives Certificate of Honour from South African Museum Association, National Conference 2025, Keys to the Museum Award, signed by the SAMA President, Talita Fourie hosted at Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History.